St Edmund, fully vested with pallium, cross staff in his left hand and right raised in blessing. He stands between the pillars of a canopy with green leafy capitals. Behind him is a blue background, with three horizontal bands. The upper two are decorative; the lowest one contains an inscription in Lombardic capitals: S(ANCTUS) EDMO/ND(US). Edmund Rich (also known as Edmund of Abingdon), represented a new model of scholarly episcopal sanctity. After a distinguished theological career at the University of Oxford, in 1233 he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by the Pope and was a significant reformer. He died in 1240 while en route to Rome, and was buried in the Cistercian abbey at Pontigny in France. He was canonised in 1246.
